Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

Who will we be in the afterlife?

My family used to gather on the front porch every afternoon for a round of coffee. It was the slow time for our business, so the break was well-timed, plus we could still see the store’s entrance from the porch in case someone showed up.

Any topic was fair game, and this one made an appearance every so often: Who will we be in the afterlife? What age will we appear to be? Will someone who knew us earlier in life recognize us as older people? Will we recognize them? Innocent questions to pass the time.

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In today’s Daily Office Gospel we encounter a similar conversation, though one not born of innocence. A group that doesn’t believe in the afterlife tries to trick Jesus with a convoluted question about whose wife a woman would be when, over time, she has married multiple brothers.

It’s not like that, Jesus says, fully aware the question is in some way a trap. The woman is no one’s wife, he says, “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
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Who will we be in the afterlife?

None of us really knows, but taking Jesus to be a qualified source, it seems we will be like angels. That may not answer all of our questions, but for me it’s a very good start.

None of us really knows what an angel is like, either, not completely. Jesus does not speak to their full identity, their form, their relationships.

But from scripture we are given insight into some of the things they get to do: An angel spoke to Mary of her special role, an angel cautioned Joseph to stay with her, and angels guarded the tomb in which Jesus’ body was laid, which I surmise makes them the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection.

Be like angels in heaven? An honor and a blessing.

Mtr Mary